Photos: Atlas 5 rocket soars from West Coast

Watch a replay of one of Iridium’s 10 communications satellites launched Sunday deploys from a dispenser mounted on the forward end of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 upper stage.

A Japanese HTV cargo freighter is set for launch Tuesday (U.S. time) aboard a powerful H-2B rocket, ferrying six new lithium-ion batteries, a Sony-developed laser communications terminal, fresh water and other equipment to the International Space Station.

More than three years after its launch was delayed by a corporate merger, a commercial Earth-imaging satellite has finally shipped to its California rocket base for liftoff aboard an Atlas 5 in September.